The invention is a firefighting device, which enables firefighters who need to penetrate a wall or door in the process of firefighting to inject water or other fire suppressing fluid into a room beyond the wall or door in order to extinguish a fire or reduce the temperature of superheated air, which may exist beyond the door or wall. After use of the firefighting device, the firefighters may safely break down the door or wall without the risk that flames or superheated air will escape through the opening created by breaking down the door or wall, thus injuring the firefighters. The invention also has electrical insulation on its critical parts including the handles held by the firefighter to reduce the risk of electric shock to the firefighter in case the piercing nozzle contacts an electric wire inside the door or wall in the process of penetrating it.
Firefighting equipment includes hoses and nozzles of various kinds designed to pour water or fire suppressant fluid on an open area visible to the firefighters.
Firefighting equipment also includes hatchets, axes and other tools designed to break down doors or walls. However, when hatchets or other similar devices are used to break down the wall, fire or superheated air may escape from the adjoining room and burn the firefighters before they can use a hose or nozzle to reduce or extinguish the fire on the other side of the wall. Additional products that are available include a ram apparatus that is forced into a closed room or space by way of hitting it rear portion with a sledgehammer, similar to a hammer hitting a nail.
The ram approach has numerous disadvantages including that the use of a sledgehammer is itself dangerous. Swinging a 20-pound sledge in wet, dangerous and chaotic surroundings is likely to injure the person using the hammer or the person holding the ram. Also the procedure requires that the sledge (a separate tool) be carried with the ram. Further the ram method requires at least two people for its operation.
The invention is novel because it addresses the shortcoming of the prior methods, and gives a safe means of piercing a wall or door, to then suppress the potential life threatening circumstances that may await the firemen on the other side. All of this is done in a self-contained apparatus that can be operated by one individual. The piercing nozzle allows the introduction of the suppression fluid without subjecting the firemen to the superheated air and toxic smoke.
The invention comprises a hollow tube, a sharp pointed head on one end of the tube, and a sliding weight, which moves back and forth along the tube, so that the impact of the sliding weight against stops on the tube drives the pointed head and tube through a wall or door. Also the weight has the ability to be used to remove the tube if it gets stuck during its use. The pointed head, or the end of the tube, has holes, which spray water, introduced into the tube at the rear end of the tube, or other firefighting fluid into the area beyond the door or wall.
The objects of the present invention are:
1. To help firefighters gain access to an adjoining room behind a door or wall safely without the risk of fire or superheated air burning them when they create an opening in the door or wall.
2. To efficiently extinguish or suppress fire which may exist behind a door or wall with almost no danger to the firefighters.
3. To make a small initial opening in a door or wall for the purpose of injecting water or fire suppressing fluid into an adjoining room.
4. To provide a light-weight, small, portable device for penetrating a door or wall capable of operation by one person and adapted for connection to a water hose or similar source of firefighting fluid.
5. To provide protection from electric shock to the firefighter operating the device in case the device contacts an electrical wire in the process of penetrating the door or wall.
6. To provide a very sharp device for easily penetrating a door wall without undue hand pressure from the operator.
7. To provide a nozzle, which will spray water or fire suppressant fluid in many different directions once it has penetrated a wall or door.
8. To provide a wall or door penetrating device which does not require electric or other power, but can be operated easily by hand by a single firefighter.
9. To provide a single apparatus, with all of its essential elements, so that the piercing operation may be accomplished, without the worry of losing essential operating components.
10. To provide an apparatus to anticipate the needs of firefighters, in the midst of trying to put out a fire, that is both simple to use and with options to address the foreseeable hazards such as having the apparatus get wedged in a location and being able to use the same weight used to drive the apparatus into the door or wall as an efficient tool to remove the apparatus
Still further objects and advantages will become evident from the detailed description of the invention, and the drawings.